Currently, I am modeling the resilience of employees based on data that was measured using wearables and apps for my PhD. Although I am formally employed by the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, my PhD trajectory is a collaboration with the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) and TNO. During my PhD I have been participating in education as a teacher at the Hanze in order to share my expertise with students as well as to increase my employability at the Hanze. Similarly, this week I am joining TNO as a parttime (0.2 FTE) ‘Junior Scientist Innovator’, where I will collaborate in several projects to both share expertise and experience what it is like to work at TNO.
My PhD trajectory was originally planned to last until September 2021, but because I started with a parttime contract, participated in education and will now also work at TNO, the end of my PhD contract will now be early-to-mid 2022 (we will assess this based on the remaining budget later this year). The majority of my time I will still focus on my PhD research, but combine it with some education at the Hanze and some project work at TNO. An ideal combination to learn what my work could look like after my PhD trajectory at either institution – I am grateful for this opportunity!
Throughout the remainder of 2021, I will participate in three projects at TNO with a similar topic (improving employee resilience or fitness using wearables and/or apps), but a slightly different emphasis. One project has a relatively strong data-driven approach, where I will particularly contribute by sharing my experiences regarding the use of consumer wearables to measure (resting) heart rate variability and sleep. For another project, my background as a physiotherapist is of added value, as assessing and improving physical fitness using digital tools is targeted. In all three projects, I will gain useful experience from working with a team of experienced psychologists and engineers.
I am looking forward to this new challenge and hope to share more regarding my work via this blog in the future!